Mat 22, 1908] 



SCIENCE 



807 



are operating without chemists. I know 

 of a soap factory, for example, in which 

 the fats are bought on inspection, the 

 alkalies on the seller's analysis, and no 

 control whatever is exercised over the 

 chemical process of soap-making excepting 

 that afforded by the sense of taste which 

 is used in determining when the boiling 

 soap is approximately neutral. The soap 

 lyes are not refined, but are shipped in 

 drums to the refiner. 



Somebody may ask: How can a small 

 plant afford to employ a chemist and so 

 increase its pay-roll by a greater or less 

 sum ? My reply is that it is not necessary 

 for the small plant to employ a chemist on 

 the spot. At all the large commercial and 

 industrial centers will be found commercial 

 chemists who will make yearly contracts 

 on the basis of the output, to handle all 

 analyses and serve in a consulting capacity 

 as well, in the interest of the plant. I 

 have in mind one such laboratory in 

 Chicago, which serves in an analytical 

 capacity for about four hundred small and 

 large foundries at a moderate compensa- 

 tion for each one. Each day the foundries 

 send in their samples and these are ana- 

 lyzed at night ; in the morning the various 

 foundries are notified by telegram or letter 

 as to whether their mixtures are right or 

 wrong, and if wrong they are told how to 

 correct them. 



The second way in which I have said the 

 chemist is useful in the modern factory is 

 in following what we call the chemical 

 control work of the factory. In brief, this 

 means the analysis of the raw material, of 

 the intermediate products and of the final 

 products of manufacture. In blast fur- 

 nace practise, the control work would in- 

 clude the analysis of the ore, of the coke, 

 and of the limestone which go to make up 

 the charge, of the pig iron produced in 

 the operation, and possibly of the slag for 

 cement-making purposes and of the blast- 



furnace gases. This is an old story to 

 chemists and to those who are familiar with 

 the chemical profession, but I would like 

 to emphasize the fact, that this technical 

 analysis or control work is, so far as the 

 operative side of an industry is concerned, 

 the vital and important thing. There is 

 no doubt that analysis is the backbone of 

 chemistry, and it is well to remember that 

 analytical methods can not be made too 

 exact. The business and commercial and 

 manufacturing world to-day is scrutinizing; 

 intently the work of the analytical chemists^ 

 both in works and in commercial labora- 

 tories, and day by day is demanding more- 

 exact and carefully made analyses. I cani 

 see signs at the present time of demands in; 

 point of accuracy of analytical work which 

 will tax to the utmost the resources of 

 chemical invention. The question of ac- 

 curacy and rapidity in technical analysis 

 is a most important one and in the near 

 future our great chemical society, through 

 its division of industrial chemists and 

 chemical engineers, must take up this ques- 

 tion and by means of committees and 

 cooperative work give the manufacturing 

 world what it is demanding. i 



There is no factory engaged in the trans- 

 formation of substances chemically which 

 does not require this control work by 

 chemists. In a soap factory, the raw fats 

 and the alkalies are analyzed; during the 

 process the product is examined for com- 

 pleteness of saponification; the lyes are 

 analyzed for their glycerine content and 

 for excess caustic soda and sodium car- 

 bonate; the crude glycerine must be ana- 

 lyzed and the chemically pure and dyna- 

 mite glycerine after distillation. Finally 

 the finished product must be analyzed from 

 time to time, and the soap of other makers 

 as well, for the sake of comparison. 



The Portland cement industry has grown 

 to enormous proportions in this country in 

 recent years and in that industry, again, 



